In Search for Freedom

Arabs Together: Disunited

Credits to “Getty Images”

How many times have we heard the word “unity”? For me, I have heard all kinds of it. “Christians & Muslims are one! we are all the same”, “Arab Unity”, “Egyptians and Syrians are one”… and the list goes on. Now I stop here and think; what if we are not really one? What if unity is not the answer? But then I stop here and think again, is the way you define unity the same way I define mine?

Have you ever thought why the west is so diverse, yet very successful (relatively)? As Arabs, we share culture, religion, history, location and language, yet we still feel so distant. We have focused so much on unity that we left acceptance to rot.

We want people to think like us, to act like us; we even subconsciously shape the people just to fit our views. No wonder why we argue all the time and get defensive when someone opposes our opinion. “If you are not like me, then you have something wrong with your brain” this became the unspoken norm.

We don’t have to be the same, if we were all the same, we would just be an army of robots, always seeing one side of the box. What we really need to do is to learn tolerance. All the people killing each other on the streets are just a bunch of ideas competing to dominate, screaming to be heard.

I believe that the greatest strength we have is our diversity. All we need to do is accept each other, with our flaws, imperfections and different perspectives. We don’t have to agree we just have to understand. We don’t have to judge, we just have to listen. But that’s just what I believe, and I could be wrong.